North Carolina played a critical, often overlooked, role in our nation’s founding. We at the North Carolina History Project have put together this timeline of our state’s contributions to the American Revolution. The following timeline chronologically lays out some of the most important events in North Carolina’s revolutionary history and links out to our more...
To academic historians and amateur (or avocational) historians: We explored the North Carolina Historical Review to find articles about the American Revolution. I hope these summaries (written by a person, not AI) will whet your appetite for the longer versions. (A link to each article on JSTOR is provided for each.) Did North Carolina’s Revolution...
The North Carolina Historical Review includes a rich collection of articles about the American Revolution. This list was compiled by Kathryn McKee and Jane Shaw Stroup.
Pyle’s Defeat occurred in February 1781 near the end of the Revolution. It was a savage blow to British hopes, as Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis attempted to stop the Patriots’ momentum.
The subject of Scottish folklore and myth, Flora MacDonald assisted Prince Charles Stuart in his escape from King George II. In 1774, she moved to North Carolina, where her Loyalist husband and son fought in the Battle of Moores Creek.
The Edenton Tea Party was one of the earliest organized women’s political actions in United States history. On October 25, 1774, Mrs. Penelope Barker organized, at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth King, fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina. Together they formed an alliance wholeheartedly supporting the American cause against “taxation without representation.”
Wilbur J. Cash (1900-1941)
Although historians disagree regarding W.J. Cash's conclusions about the Old and New South, they agree that all serious scholars of Southern history and culture must be familiar with Mind of the South. In it, the North Carolinian predicted the Civil Rights Movement. He died an untimely death in Mexico City in 1941.
Malcom P. McLean (1913 – 2001)
“The Father of containerization,” Malcolm P. McLean revolutionized the shipping industry during the 1950s and 1960s and his innovation help increase trade between the United States and China. His big idea: an independent box container (trailer) placed in a truck bed on wheels. These standardized containers were removable from trucks and stackable on barges and provided for more goods to be shipped at cheaper prices. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, McLean adapted to and overcame government regulations.
Barton College
Formerly known as Atlantic Christian College, Barton College in Wilson has an institutional and denominational history that dates from 1893.
Ella Baker (1903 – 1986)
A North Carolina native, Ella Baker played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement and in forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Shaw University.
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
Started by Ella Baker, a Shaw University alumna, SNCC used a more decentralized and local strategy than other civil rights organizations and provided leadership examples for other 1960s protest groups. After SNCC’s formation at the Raleigh institutution, sit-ins became more frequent. As the decade continued, SNCC leadership started emphasizing Black Power, contradicting conservative, ministerial leadership in other organizations, and thereby revealing discontent and disagreement within the Civil Rights Movement.
The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths
In this compilation, Walter Hines Page includes three essays discussing democracy and education in the South: “The Forgotten Man,” “The School That Built a Town,” and the publication’s namesake, “The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths.”
The Southerner
In this fictional autobiography of Nicholas Worth, Walter Hines Page depicts the unsuccessful attempts of a Harvard- educated Progressive and Southerner to usher in education reforms in his native state. Many parts of this fictional work indicate what Page's ideas regarding educational reform and his experiences in North Carolina.
‘A Publisher’s Confession’
Written by Walter Hines Page in 1905, A Publisher's Confession details the faults and errors of his literary peers. Writing anonymously, Hines was able to disclose his personal views of publishers.
Shaw University
From its beginning in 1865, Shaw University has been a forerunner in starting educational programs among historically black colleges, and in 1960, it served as the birthplace of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement.
Saint Augustine’s University
Located in Raleigh, Saint Augustine’s College was founded by the Episcopal Church in 1867. Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute was its original name. Like many institutions of higher learning established during the late 1860s and early 1870s, St. Augustine’s was created to educate freedmen. Although the Freedmen’s Bureau assisted the formation of historically black college, they, including St. Augustine’s Normal School, depended heavily on denominational and individual charity. Schools were affiliated with a denomination from which came much financial support.
Nathaniel Macon (1758-1837)
Ultimas Romanorum--"the last of the Romans": That is what Thomas Jefferson called Nathaniel Macon. Others referred to Macon, not George Washington, as the "real Cincinnatus of America," and some nicknamed the Warren countian "the Cato of Republicanism."
Fort Fisher
Until its capture by the Union army in 1865, Fort Fisher was the largest earthwork fortification in the world. The “Gibraltar of the South” protected the port of Wilmington and ensured that the Confederacy had at least one “lifeline” until the last few months of the Civil War. Confederate blockade runners had little difficulty eluding the U.S. blockade, and Colonel William Lamb, the fort’s commander from 1862 to 1864, organized their efforts. The runners delivered goods in Wilmington, and The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad transported these goods to supply Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.